The bull (male) elk are beginning to drop their antlers—a yearly occurrence that happens a few months after breeding season due to a decrease in testosterone.
Antlers drop annually in late winter, typically January through March. The dropped antlers are called “sheds,” and the process does not hurt the buck. From spring to summer, the antlers regrow and are usually larger than the previous year.
Here is one at the North Carolina Zoo.
Elk Looking Up
Elk
The chimpanzee, also known as the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa.
Chimpanzees are listed as endangered in the wild. The North Carolina Zoo is actively involved in wild chimpanzee conservation in Uganda’s Kibale National Park, which boasts the largest chimpanzee population in East Africa.
Here is one lying down at the zoo to get some rest.
Chimpanzee Lying Down
Chimpanzee Closeup
A Hamadryas Baboon baby is looking quizzically at visitors at the North Carolina Zoo
Baby Hamadryas Baboon
Grooming is indeed a valuable commodity in itself, likely due to its stress- and tension-reducing effects. Primates also groom socially in moments of boredom, and this act has been shown to reduce tension and stress.
One hamadryas baboon is grooming another at the North Carolina Zoo.
Fellow Grooming
The hamadryas also differs from other baboons in its social behaviour. Instead of maintaining a large cohesive troop, hamadryas split during the day into groups consisting of a single male and his “harem” of up to six (or more) females. Unlike most species that live in one-male social units, hamadryas males use aggression both during and after takeovers to condition females to maintain proximity.
This one at the North Carolina Zoo looks pretty aggressive.
Hamadryas Baboon Staring
The hamadryas baboon is a species of baboon within the family of Old World monkeys. It is the northernmost of all the baboons, being native to the Horn of Africa and the southwestern region of the Arabian Peninsula.
Here is one at the North Carolina Zoo.
Hamadryas Baboon
The largest birds in the world are at the North Carolina Zoo. The ostriches stand nearly seven feet tall and weigh close to 300 pounds. Despite their size, ostriches’ brains are not very big. Their eyes are bigger than their brain.
Striding Ostrich
Ostrich Walking
Acacia Station at the North Carolina Zoo is a giraffe viewing deck where you can see giraffes eye-to-eye and take portrait shots. It is exciting to feed lettuce to giraffes with a long tongue.
Giraffe Looking at You
A giraffe looks over the fence at the North Carolina Zoo to see if any food is on the other side.
Giraffe Looking Over the Fence
A giraffe is shooing another away to eat food alone at the North Carolina Zoo. A zebra in the background is eating grass.
Shooing another Giraffe Away
Food for Me
The North Carolina Zoo has high feeding stations to accommodate giraffes’ height. The giraffes eat alfalfa hay and Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) pellets twice a day, but they can usually eat as much as they want.
Giraffe Reaching High for Food
Giraffes can be so tall that they can peer into a second-story window. Here is one at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro.
Giraffe Standing Tall
The Forest Edge habitat at the North Carolina Zoo has giraffes and zebras. Guests can see the animals at four different viewing areas. The habitat is 3.5 acres and mimics the lightly wooded savannas found in Kenya.Here are portraits of giraffes from the Giraffe Deck, where you get eye-to-eye with these long-legged giants and even feed them.
Giraffe Portrait
Giraffe Looking Away
Side View of Giraffe
Here is a rhino with a lifted leg staring with a tilted head, but still looking at you at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro.
Rhino Staring
As herbivores, white rhinos mainly eat grasses found in their grassland and savannah habitats. They prefer short grasses around 3 to 4 inches tall and use their square lips to crop the grass close to the ground.
Here is a rhino at the North Carolina Zoo nibbling and eating grass.
Rhino Nibbling
Rhino Eating
A closer view of a rhino in the North Carolina Zoo almost looks at you. The horns are menacing!
Rhino Looking at You
Baby Rhino Closeup
White rhinos are grazers, feeding entirely on grasses that they crop with their wide front lip. Their short legs, long head reaching almost to the ground, and wide mouth, combined with a side-to-side head movement, allow them to eat massive quantities of grass.
Here are two herbivore rhinos at the North Carolina Zoo eating grass.
Grass for Rhino
While this rhino at the North Carolina Zoo is taking small steps, rhinos can run at a top speed ranging from 25 to 34 mph.
Rhino Taking Steps
Images of one, two, and a trio of rhinos at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro.
A Single Rhino
Dual Rhinos
Trio of Rhinos
White rhinos are the second-largest land mammal, behind only elephants. Their name comes from the Afrikaans, a West Germanic language, word “weit,” which means wide and refers to the animal’s mouth. Most (98.8%) of the southern white rhinos occur in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.
The Watani Grassland Habitat at the North Carolina Zoo has a spacious area of grass where large rhinos are free to graze on the plants that cover the 40-acre habitat. Rhino horn is made of compressed, fibrous hair made of keratin – the same protein human hair and fingernails are made of. Rhinos reach speeds of 30 mph for short bursts.
Southern White Rhinoceros
Southern White Rhinoceros Closeup
Southern White Rhino